Sterling Silver
Sterling silver is one of the most popular metals to use as a jeweler. It's malleable and durable, which gives us a lot of creative freedom. It's color and quality makes it one of my personal favorite metals.
You may know sterling as .925, which means that the metal is 92.5% pure silver mixed with metals like copper for added strength.
Gold Plating
We use gold plating for our gold jewelry. We specifically plate gold on top of sterling silver. The thin layer of gold adheres better to silver than base metals like brass or bronze. It also maintains its value since it is solid silver underneath.
Gold plating is a great way to offer a gold look without the gold price tag. Solid gold is very expensive (about 75x more expensive than silver!).
Gold-Filled
The gold-filled process consists of bonding two to three layers of gold over a base metal. It's a much thicker layer of gold than gold-plating. Gold-filled can last a really long time, a few decades even, if taken care of.
This metal does have its limitations, though. It's tricky to solder because too much heat could melt away that layer of gold, exposing the base metal underneath. It can only be used in certain designs, but it's the next best thing after solid gold.
Solid Gold
Gold has a rich history as being one of the favorite, most luxurious metals out there. Solid gold will never corrode or tarnish. It's a flexible material and can be made into any shape or design. It's a dream to work with.
24K gold is pure gold (meaning it's not mixed with any other metals), but it's much too soft to use for jewelry. We typically use 14K and 18K gold. We work in solid gold by request only.
14K gold uses 58.30% gold and is more scratch resistant and durable than 18K gold.
18K gold uses 75% gold and is slightly softer than 14K gold.
The type of metal used is listed under each product on our website.
Now, whenever someone asks you about the piece you're wearing, you can confidently tell them exactly what it is made out of!